Senescence
by s1yr
Summary: A "What If?" fic exploring what would've happened if Coper had not betrayed Kirito, who then decide to partner up together. A thorough exploration of Aincrad full of death, betrayal, guild politics, loot, and romance. 1-3 chapters per floor with an emphasis on typical MMORPG gameplay: quest chains, major bosses, new loot, sword skill acquisition, strategy & tactics, and more.


**Author's Note: READ this before you start my story!**

**This story assumes that you, the reader, have already read the side-story called "First Day", which is Volume 8, Chapter 3 of the Sword Art Online light novels. It is available to read, for free, on a certain website called "Baka-tsuki". I **_**highly suggest**_** that you read this short story of roughly 15,000 words before you read my fan-fic. It explains who the canon version of Coper is, and what he does to Kirito.**

**Once again, I must recommend you read "First Day" before starting my story, do not complain to me when you don't understand who Coper is! You can use a search engine and, by using the phrase that is not bolded not far ahead, should be able to find this side story to read, for free: "**Sword Art Online Volume 8 Chapter 3**", without the quotes, of course. I tested this on the google/bing/yahoo/duckduckgo search engines, and **_**all**_** of them work properly, bringing you to the "First Day" side story.**

**If you haven't read this side-story, please do not cry that 'Coper' is a made up character or an OC. While I have changed some facets of his character, none of them are particularly huge, save for the fact that he remains in the story.**

**Coper and Kirito will not be having a slash romance. Coper will not be dethroning Kirito as the hero of Aincrad, aka The Black Swordsman. Coper will not be invincible, nor will Coper be all-knowing. Coper, like Kirito, is just a 14-year old boy who is a computer addict that loves video games.**

**Do not expect this story to have a battle harem guild, nor will it feature harems of any kind. I will **_**NOT**_**, under **_**any**_** circumstances, have Coper steal Asuna away from Kirito. Kirito x Asuna is guaranteed in this story, but romance will take a back seat to everything else this fan-fic stands for.**

**Have you read "First Day"? If so, enjoy. If not, read that story first! This fan-fic is based off the canon version of Coper, with some very obvious changes. End of Author's Note.**

* * *

**Chapter 1: Overture** (July 24st, 2022)

I couldn't believe I was so lucky! I had never been lucky, not with games, not with girls, nothing!

There, on my computer screen, was an acceptance email from Argus stating that I had been accepted into the «Closed Beta» for the VRMMORPG, «Sword Art Online», that had been widely anticipated for months. The few leaked screenshots had shown a beautifully designed world, and nearly everyone who had purchased a NerveGear had signed up for the beta. Out of the thousands upon thousands of applicants, _I had been chosen!_

I screamed, literally. I was 13 years old, and I was currently on my summer break. The beta would start 8 days from now, on August 1st, and would last until 10pm on August 31st, an entire month. It would be a superb, if a bit early, birthday present. I was, err, I am, a bit of a computer addict, nerd, otaku, or whatever the reals want to call me.

My parents had never had qualms about my school scores and had always raised me to be logical, perceptive, and above all, calculating. It was simply one more thing that had alienated me among my peers, growing up. My mother, despite not being exactly thrilled at my obsession with computers, was at least happy that I wasn't guided by my emotions or driven by some of mankind's baser instincts like some delinquent; my father, on the other hand, was the one who had partially given me this obsession with computer games in the first place.

I was born September 4th, 2008, at the Yokohama Municipal Citizens Hospital. My mother was a native Japanese named Tsukiji Tae (築地 多恵), and my father is an American whose name is David Holley. When they got married in 2005, they both adopted names in the other's language as a sign of solidarity; it was uncommon at the time of their marriage, and still is to this day. My mom chose Tai Holley, to retain her given name, and my dad picked Tsukiji Takayuki (築地孝之).

As a result of this uncommon union, I too have a pair of names that I go by. My Japanese name is Tsukiji Takeru (築地武) and my English name is Cooper Holley. I grew up in a household where I learned both languages, though I did lean heavily on my Japanese early on. My father, however, repeatedly imparted on me the importance of English and taught me himself when he could, and when he couldn't, he hired tutors to impress it upon me further the importance of being bilingual. He would handpick my tutors out personally, only hiring those who were natively fluent or nearly so, and English was not the only thing they had taught me. I fed upon knowledge like a plant feeds upon sunshine and water, and my voracity for it was second only to my appetite video games; in particular, RPGs and MMORPGs.

Unfortunately, my mother died at the young age of 34, when I was only 11 years old, slightly over 2 years ago. My father and I had been hit extremely hard by her untimely death at the hands of a wealthy drunk driver. Father placed the entire sum of the settlement into a trust fund, telling me that it would have been what my mother wanted. It was hard on both of us, and my father began dealing with the pain of it by working like a horse. It wasn't like we needed the money, either; father already made over 10 million yen a year with his job, and we lived quite nicely in a rich part of Yokohama.

Although my father was technically a resident of Japan by now, having been married to mother for over 10 years, it was difficult for a "foreigner" to buy property in Japan. With my mother alive, it had been a lot easier, apparently, and dad was not alone at feeling the sting of discrimination, but I was fortunate in that being placed in International schools had spared me from the worst of it.

That was around the time that I had begun absorbing myself in computers and getting lost in them, even more so than before my mom's death. I primarily played MMORPGs, like my dad had once played, and lost myself in their comforting embrace of questing, leveling, and everything else that MMOs have to offer. Online, inside the game, nobody called me a half-breed, mudblood, foreigner, or whatever new slurs the 'pure' Japanese kids could think up. I lost myself in MMO games, and I think I understood then why my dad would have enjoyed similar pursuits in his youth as well.

Simply put, it was a way to escape the troubles of the world, to put your past behind you while also working with other players to complete a common goal while also having fun doing it.

When the NerveGear was announced, it didn't take much convincing for my dad to buy one. Sadly however, the game library was, at best, abysmal at the time. It wasn't until Sword Art Online was announced that I began eagerly awaiting the first Virtual Reality MMORPG, then labeled the world's first «VRMMORPG».

And now, I had been chosen to play in the closed beta of that very same VRMMORPG. The very same! I literally shook with excitement just thinking about it. In my school's computer club, despite it being still summer break, Sword Art Online became a hot topic after the announcement, but I kept my status as a beta tester a secret. I was only begrudgingly left alone as it was, but if they knew I had one of the rare 1,000 closed beta slots? I didn't know what would happen, truthfully.

Since we only discussed topics online in a chat-room during the break, the likelihood of my discovery was nil, and I hadn't planned on ruining my fun time by spilling the beans. I still wasn't sure if I was going to tell them I was buying the game, and most of them weren't big MMO gamers as it is. As the president so eloquently put it, most of them were waiting for the first VR-eroge to be released. I briefly shuddered at the thought and quickly purged it from my mind.

The next week had passed very slowly, yet also very quickly at times. During dinners, I talked about nothing else with my dad. He was genuinely interested, and lamented that in his age he no longer had the time for such activities, with a wistful look in his eye.

He had met mom on a MMORPG, so I'm sure it always brought back painful memories, but he never hesitated to smile for my sake, to tell me stories about the old 40-man raids he had been a part of when he was young, one of his favorites being something called Nacksramas. He called it a floating necropolis, which was at the time was full of extremely challenging bosses, and he said his guild's repair bills were through the roof just trying to clear one of the 4 wings.

Before I knew it, August 1st had arrived. The beta would officially begin at noon, but I was already ready to go at 10 in the morning. The next two hours were probably the longest two hours of my entire life. I was so excited that my character creation went by in a haze. I used my Japanese given name of Takeru, converted into romaji, and began my adventure into Aincrad.

* * *

**Chapter 1.5: Transfiguration** (August 17th, 2022)

_Aincrad – 6__th__ Floor_

Standing inside a rented room on the 2nd floor of one of the private houses along the main thoroughfare in the main village of the 6th floor, a town called «Mularn» by the NPCs residents, I was staring intently at the nearby teleport gate. I had, in my hands, a virtual notepad with all of the weapon types and armor types listed, with tally marks aside each of their names.

Most of the players in this game were not hardcore by any stretch of the meaning. They played for only a couple of hours a day, although when it came down to it, the beta testers did manage to muster up quite a force for each floor's boss fight, usually numbering at least 3 raid groups large; or nearly 150 players.

With a server population of only one thousand players, it was quite a feat to have 15% of the population gathered in one spot for a singular goal. At the very least, it was probably good for stress testing the servers being used. The majority of those 150 players were not very good or particularly skilled, who tended to be fodder for the bosses or their minions, but, as long as you participated and did damage you got a slice of the experience and a chance at the loot. Any gamer who has played RPGs for more than a week knows that loot is one of the main driving factors behind player motivation in-game, _especially _so in MMORPGs where players competed against each other.

Dying however totally negated these extra benefits and since the player would respawn outside of the boss chamber until it was over, players had to remain careful lest they die.. all for naught! Consequently the art of 'switching' was born into existence as groups shuffled in and out of combat to lick their wounds between bouts.

I had noticed, however, that the player who lands the last hit on the boss gets _extra_ loot. _Special_ loot that was one of a kind. I even acquired one of these items, done so in the recent boss fight on the 5th floor, only by chance mind you, but I still received a very nice piece of _unique_ loot. Whoever conceived this "feature" was tempting fate, as these extraordinarily rare items would no doubt breed contempt and ire between guilds and players. Remember what I just said about loot being one of the primary motivators for MMORPG players? Yeah, add two and two together and it isn't going to be pretty...

The magnificent bastard who created the "unique loot for last hitting a boss" also added another brilliant function or, rather, a lack thereof: the game never announced _who_ received this extra loot except to the lucky player, which was quite hard to notice if you weren't sure who got the last hit!

The unique loot I had been privy too was a notably robust one handed spear called «Black Ice». For a one handed spear, it was quite lengthy and sleek, made entirely out of black metal – which was extremely rare for a spear at this level. Looking back on it, this was the weapon which gave me the inspiration for nearly everything that happened. Without such an exquisite specimen in my hands I doubt I would have ever reconsidered my choice of weapon.

Currently in Aincrad, there was at most roughly 60 players who I considered to be just as good as me, if not better. These were the players I paid the most attention to when running my tally, and before a boss fight was the best time to do so. I had, in fact, done such a thing before the last boss fight, and was now just tallying up casual players for a rough idea on how the general population would react upon the game's release.

Basically, players took the game's name of «Sword Art Online» quite literally when selecting their weapon; even I was not immune to the charm that swords had. At least 80% of the population had some variation of sword sheathed across their back or held in their hand for battle, whether it be the two-handed variety, curved swords, thin rapiers, short swords, and by far the most popular, plain old straight swords. That statistic proved to me that the game's name held a lot of influence over a player's preconception about which weapon to choose amongst the laundry list.

Maces, axes, and spears, like their sword counterparts, all came in one and two handed types. Although one handed maces were, by far, preferred over their two handed variety, axes and spears had an almost universal appeal as the 'long ranged' weaponry in Sword Art Online. For a modern MMORPG, the lack of ranged weaponry and magic, aside from the weak skill Blade Throwing, was a bold move that many beta testers questioned, and was frequently discussed on anonymous websites.

With my hours' worth of tallying complete, I lay down on my rented bed and signed off from the game.

When I awoke back inside my home, I wrote down my results on a real pad of paper and then moved to my computer. There had been a flood of info being reported on the internet about SAO ever since the closed beta had been going on; all, of course, on very private websites designed to circumvent the disclosure agreement that every player in the closed beta had signed prior to character creation.

This particular website that I was visiting was hosted by one of the information brokers' in-game, who remained anonymous like the rest of us. The information on this particular website had always been useful, and as one of the informants who provided information to the broker, I was granted a small level of access to that knowledge, from which I had grown well-informed about the in-game mechanics of Aincrad. Today had been another one of my assignments, gathering data about weapon usage rates was extremely useful for an information broker after all, especially when it came to which quests and quest rewards players would find most valuable.

Having finished my report for the day, I scanned some of the other reports that had been submitted on the private forum: weapon proficiency rates, weapon comparison charts, there was an entire plethora of details about the game available at my fingertips. I quickly made copies of each report before they would be scanned and removed, and then I decided to read the ones about weapon proficiencies for information's sake.

"Weapon proficiency covers each weapon's base damage, and the damage types of their sword skills. All weapons that exist in Aincrad can be classified under 4 categories: **blunt**, **slashing**, **thrusting**, and **piercing** damage, with the same names for weapon proficiency."

"Each weapon type has various proficiencies for each damage type, which is unaffected by skill level. Higher proficiency gives a player access to more and better sword skills of that damage type, and each kind of weapon also had a preferred damage type."

"The preferred damage type gives the player wielding the weapon access to a majority of that specific proficiency's sword skills, assuming they have the appropriate skill level to unlock the advanced sword skills. An example of this is: blunt for hammers, slashing for axes, thrusting for rapiers, and piercing for spears."

"Low proficiency has the opposite effect, and will limit a player to less advanced sword skills of a certain damage type. All weapons, in spite of having a base damage type, are given sword skills that perform different damage types so that each player can use alternative damage types, should they come across a foe that is heavily resistant or immune to that specific brand of damage."

"Slashing and thrusting are by far the most common damage types, with nearly any weapon capable of it in some form, with slashing also being the most common weapon proficiency. Piercing and blunt are tied in third place with the fewest weapons capable of using their weapon type. Only five weapon types out of twelve have any degree of proficiency with these comparatively rare damage types; slashing, for example, is available to ten weapon types out of twelve while thrusting is accessible to eight weapon types out of twelve".

"Only one weapon type in-game has two preferred damage types and that is the «Short Sword», commonly referred to as a dagger. With both slashing and thrusting as its preferred damage, it gives the short sword the highest amount of «Sword Skills» when compared to any other single type of weapon at equal skill level. This fact gives short swords a common attribute as being a beginner's weapon, as it suffers from low damage and reach."

"In a similar light, only one weapon has access to all four damage types with their sword skills. Although its weapon proficiency suffers greatly in the weaker of the two proficiencies, one and two handed assault spears are extremely versatile despite their average damage and speed."

"Assault spears, in both one handed and two handed form, are the only weapons which specialize in piercing damage, with a secondary typing in thrusting. Assault spears, however, will only ever receive low proficiency sword skills of the slash and blunt damage types. Low weapon proficiency aside, assault spears have a range that is second to none on the battlefield."

I skimmed the rest of the report, and then checked up on the numbers I had tallied earlier.

«One Handed Assault Spears»… were used by an exceedingly tiny minority of players. Around 1.5% to be precise and it was only barely ahead of «One Handed Battle Axe». Considering that nearly a third of all players used one handed straight swords, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. The game's name, after all, seemed to glorify the usage of swords above all else. Even the phrase 'sword skill' was applied to each and every category of weapon-based skills that players used in combat.

Having sated myself with my current research, I decided to do some practical research in-game to see if spears were truly useful, or just a gimmick. Swords, despite being popular, would have to be balanced among other weapons if the creator truly wished to produce a stable game.

Too popular, and the prices and quests for any good swords would become expensive or crowded, while other weapons would be nothing more than unwanted trash.

I had played games in the past with awful ideas about game "balance", and if you were not using what was considered best, well, you didn't ordinarily win. It was called 'cookie cutter' for a reason, and game developers usually strive to balance things out to prevent lopsidedness. I could only hope that whoever balanced Sword Art Online also had a sense of fair play.

Laying down on my bed and situating myself in a comfortable position, I quietly whispered 'Link Start' and began work on my new project with roughly 2 weeks left.

* * *

**Chapter 1.9: Precipice** (August 31st, 2022)

_Aincrad – 10__th__ Floor_

Breathing heavily I glanced around and, upon seeing that there were no more enemies nearby, sheathed my spear on my back. Although this area was technically the front lines, we had been on this floor for over a week and with the beta ending today, the chance of us breaching the tenth floor dungeon was extremely small.

Checking the in-game clock, the display read a little after 4 in the afternoon. There was now less than 6 hours left before my glorious game would end for over 2 months. I thought waiting 8 days took too long? Hah!

Letting out an outward groan, I started walking towards the next area that was sparsely populated with humanoid mobs.

I was currently in the shadow of «Thousand Snake Castle», which had defied all attempts at breaking through. Players had died so quickly inside the labyrinth that all but the most elite and dedicated had retired to floors underneath this one to train and hone their skills.

With the exodus of players from the 10th floor, there was now less than 30 players here at any given time, most of them in groups. Among the solo players, we could be counted on one hand and we all had a sort of respect for one another in that we gave each other a wide berth to 'work' alone without the fear of being spied upon. We also knew each other's in-game name, but as for what good it would do when the game was released, I didn't know.

I, at least, had planned on changing my name upon release and assumed other players would do the same, and as such, didn't familiarize myself with beta names too much.

Turning a corner, I quickly spotted a monster and ducked behind where I had just walked by. I unsheathed my spear, «Black Ice», and equipped my modified «Heater Shield». A normal heater shield has a very unique shape; but with the enhancement of +2 heaviness, which contrary to what you might think actually reduces the weight of the item, slightly changes the shape of a shield.

This modified shape was requested during the enhancement of the shield, and as an unusual request took me many days to locate a proper blacksmith who could perform such an odd task.

The end result was a heater shield which had a slight concave on the upper edge, where normally it would be a straight line. I requested this specific enhancement after much research into sword skills based upon my one handed assault spear.

Had my heater shield had the typical straight top of a heater shield, it would be difficult at times to steady my spear as I pointed it in certain direction, which is where my modified shield came into play. The slight concave, which produced an inward curve, naturally steadied my spear when placed on the concave and made it far easier to wield in the heat of battle without relying entirely on arm strength.

Smirking at my own ingenuity, I raised my spear and shield into my combat stance and charged at my foe: «Orochi Standard Guard».

It was a samurai type humanoid, vastly inferior to the Elite Guards inside but still a clever and dangerous foe, both of whom used the «Katana» skills that were prevalent all over this floor, but were predominantly clustered all around and inside the dungeon leading to the 11th floor.

Halfway to my target with only 5m left, the Guard turned to face me and assumed a quick-draw stance, their right hand on the handle of the katana.

We both began our sword skills at the same time, with my enemy activating «Battoujutsu», a weapon skill which only worked on a sheathed katana. I immediately stopped a tad over 2m away and activated «Sweep», a rather weak horizontal slashing skill.

The guard darted forward, slashing out and barely touching my outstretched shield, while my «Sweep» activated just after his skill hit, knocking the mob backwards and dealing a modest 10% of his HP.

The instant I recovered I activated my highest rank piercing skill, «Run Through» which began as my opponent started activating his next ability.

«Run Through» is a very quick and moderate damage skill that also stuns, and therefore disrupts, the enemy's attack. It is one of my shortest melee attacks, but also very useful due to the quick activation.

The hit registered over 30% of the mobs' life, and we were both stunned in that brief window of inactivity. One of the drawbacks of Run Through was the long recovery time, which partially negated the benefit of the stun.

I ran forward, out of range of the guard's immediate attack pattern, and turned around to face my foe.

Unfortunately, at that moment, I was hit from behind by a paralyzing attack. The last that I saw before being set upon and dying was the form of a ninja type mob, the rare and elusive «Orochi Kunoichi».

Respawning in the main city of the 10th floor, «Hakuryou», I clicked my tongue and began walking towards one of the nearby shops. Very few players were walking around, and mostly those who likely belonged on other floors who were just checking this floor out.

The 10th floor was very reminiscent of old feudal Japan, and this city did not disappoint. Every home was wooden and built like something out of a high quality Sengoku movie set, with all the NPCs wearing traditional Japanese clothing.

At level 18, I placed amongst the upper echelon of beta players and as of this morning, currently tied in third place with players' #9-15. The highest level was only level 20, and there were two of them currently. Had I wanted more efficiency, leveling on a lower floor would certainly speed things up, but I had long ago decided that the paltry honor of being the "highest level player of closed beta" to be quite irresponsible over gathering information. What did it matter what your level was in closed beta when it would be reset and forgotten?

Entering a standard item shop, I approached the clerk NPC and began selling items that I had earned defeating those demanding samurai-type mobs. The ratio of earning col based upon the difficulty of the floor was quite linear, such that a player barely earned double what someone on the third or fourth floor would earn in a single kill. The one saving grace would be item drops, and this floor was the first to drop the glorified katana.

It was an assured thing that the katana, like all swords, would be a highly sought after item. It had been recently discovered that once a player had trained with the «One Handed Curved Sword» for a certain amount of time, «Katana» would be unlocked. As well as the above requirement, the katana skill apparently did not show up until the 10th floor had been unlocked, so perhaps skills have secondary requirements as well. With information being so scarce and incomplete, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

From what little I had seen, katana skills seem to be primarily based on area of effect «AoE» based attacks, with an emphasis on speed. They usually weren't that damaging, but they did seem to be versatile, if a bit cliché with very obvious tells regarding what stance activated which sword skill.

Finishing with my business, I left the store and began walking towards my rented room, which also had a clear view of the teleport gate. On my way there, however, I spotted another one of my fellow solo players heading towards the blacksmith, which was behind me.

He had a bit of shoulder length black hair that was a bit shaggy, with dark eyes that screamed 'pure' Japanese. His only armor consisted of a small unobtrusive breastplate along with a suit of lacquered leather armor, along with a dark cloak. On his back was an impressive sight: one of the best swords in-game, the «Queen's Knightsword», which I only knew of due to my informant position.

As we approached each other we both gave the other a curt nod, and he raised an eyebrow at seeing my spear. Among all spears available in-game, it had the honor at being one of the few with a unique look, and if he was in a similar position as me… well, he likely knew what it was just as I knew what his sword was, since I had reported my spear to my employer the day that I had acquired it.

We had met before, mostly in the boss battles, but his name did not come to me and we continued on our separate ways without a word between us. It was an unwritten rule between solo players, and we upheld it unless the situation required that we speak or act out.

I arrived at my lookout spot and began my watch. As boring as it was, the information that I had received over the past month had all but assured my compliance, and I did not intend to renege on my end of the bargain.

Two hours later and it was nearing 7 in the evening. As I was about to log out of the beta for the last time, I was filled with a sense of longing as I would not be able to enjoy this world for more than 2 months. Just thinking about it made me grimace, but I was determined to keep myself well-informed in the meantime.

Lying down on the bed, the last thought I had in Aincrad was that at least I would be automatically given the chance to preorder my copy of this amazing game. My dad had only warned me that I had to maintain my grades if I wanted to remain playing this game, so I hardened my resolve to study dutifully once school started again. Which was tomorrow, I grumbled to myself as I closed my eyes.


End file.
